Forbes: McIlroy is world's 35th highest paid athlete

Rory McIlroy basks in the limelight of his BMW PGA Championship win at Wentworth last May. Picture: David Lloyd / www.golffile.ie

The figures only cover the 12 months to June this year — just before he won two consecutive majors — but Rory McIlroy is already the 35th best paid athlete on the planet according to Forbes' The World's 100 Highest-Paid Athletes 2014.

He's tied with New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter, a man who's announced he's retiring at the end of the year, with estimated earnings from June 2013 to June 2014 of $24.3 million made up of salary/winning of $4.3 million and endorsement earnings of $20 million.

That's a long way short of what we might imagine given that Horizon Sports Management's Conor Ridge swears in his affidavit of 15 September — part of the on-going legal battle between McIlroy and Horizon — that the Holywood man has already received $50m of the $100m Nike contract.

Forbes' Kurt Badenhausen has also compiled a list of the biggest athletes on social media and the superb infographic puts the relative importance of golf into perspective among the planet's biggest hitters.

Yes, golfing consumers generally have more spending power than the average soccer or American football fan but golf certainly can't compete for mass interest, at least as far as the social media popularity of the Top 100 Highest Paid Athletes.

No fewer than 38 athletes in the Top 100 have more social media followers than McIlroy had last June — 2m between Twitter and Facebook. Soccer is still the king of games.

McIlroy v Horizon: Could Rory risk losing $30m plus?

Rory McIlroy missed out on a $11.4m pay day in the FedEx Cup finale in Atlanta on Sunday but he could be back in Georgia next April having lost at least $30m, not to mention his brand image, if his case against Horizon Sports Management goes all the way to the High Court in Dublin in February and he loses.

$how me the money - McIlroy third richest golfer last year

Rory McIlroy in his first outing with Nike Golf in Abu Dhabi. Picture Stuart Adams www.golftourimages.comRory McIlroy was the third highest earning golfer in the world behind Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson last year.

McIlroy goes his own way

Going their separate ways. Rory McIlroy and Horizon Sports Management’s Conor Ridge visit the White House in March 2012.(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)Rory McIlroy has been hailed as golf’s Golden Child and the natural successor to Tiger Woods but while he announced yesterday that he has officially terminated his contract with Horizon Sports Management and become “Rory McIlroy Incorporated” (RMI), there are still troubled waters ahead for the former world number one in the form of a legal battle with his former agency.

Federer chasing McIlroy?

Roger Federer has set up his own management firm with longtime agent Tony Godsick. According to The New York Times, the Swiss star is “particularly interested in signing a leading golfer in the near term.” Could he be chasing Rory McIlroy?